NRL to introduce "The Bunker"

One little referee indiscretion, as the Scottish rugby supporters saw it, and they were ready to toss the caber at the opposition Wallabies players and supporters at Twickenham.

Almost a week later and still Scots are crying into their kilts over what they saw as a harsh penalty awarded which led to the Aussies knocking them out of the Rugby World Cup.

With apologies to the Scots, but little has been said in the wash up of the disallowed try to the Wallabies in the first half which looked very much like a fair try and, had it been awarded, would have had the Aussies in front in THAT last minute.

The match review committee reckon the ref made a mistake and should have awarded a scrum to the Wallabies instead.

In other words, the Wallabies would have fed and won the scrum and, after a few phases, kicked the winning field goal anyway. So, what's all the fuss?

After all, it's just sport.

Being a born-and-bred North Queenslander, the Cowboys are my second team (after the hapless Dragons) and you'd never see them whining about being dumped from the competition on a referees blunder. Oh, hang on.

Well, the Cowboys were robbed three times in consecutive NRL semi-final series so they might have cause for cries of conspiracy.

But, if the Cowboys' experience is anything to go by, having moved past those three consecutive years of heartache to go on and win the NRL grand final in the fourth year, the Scots should be looking forward to a successful World Cup in four years' time.

With all the controversy in both rugby codes since video replay rulings came in, perhaps it's time to return responsibility to the adjudicators in the middle and on the touch lines.

One would hope players, coaches and supporters are mature enough to believe in human error on the field as opposed to someone stuffing it up after viewing 53 video replays from 17 different angles.

The NRL will next year introduce "The Bunker" in which a team of video reviewers will sit and adjudicate on refs' calls from all games.

They say it works in American football, but I have my doubts.

The only other bunker I've ever heard of is that one in Berlin toward the end of World War II and the decisions that came out of there weren't too flash at all.